


you better know what you're fighting for

by SuperStitious18



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Fluff, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-12
Updated: 2019-03-12
Packaged: 2019-11-15 21:14:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18081020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuperStitious18/pseuds/SuperStitious18
Summary: A long day for Dinah turns out it gets worse before it gets better.





	you better know what you're fighting for

**Author's Note:**

> My 30th fic on ao3 and my first Dinahsiren fic!  
> A huge thank you to @wardenroot for helping me with this fic and beta-ing it!  
> Hope you enjoy!

Today could easily be counted as one of the worst days in Dinah’s entire career. Hell, her entire life if she wanted to go that far.

Of course, it hadn’t started out bad, instead starting with her and Laurel having breakfast together in the latter’s apartment. That had been wonderful, just them existing together in their little bubble before having to face the harshness that was their day jobs. She remembered how Laurel had given her a quick kiss goodbye as she exited the car to head into the precinct to get started on her next assignment. 

That would be the last good moment she’d experience all day. Dinah was sure of it from the instant her boss saw her and made a beeline towards her, an angry scowl firmly fixed on his face. 

“Drake! One of the witnesses for that murder case you were working on? Came up dead last night, you wouldn’t happen to know anything about that would you?” her superior asked, waiting impatiently for her answer.

“What? No, I don’t sir,” she seethed at the new information. One of her main reasons for even booking the idiot in the first place revolved around that very witness being able to place the defendant at the time of the murder. The fact he was found dead the night before he was supposed to testify in court meant bad news for her and her job.

“Yeah well, he was our main witness and since he went missing, the defense attorney had plenty of chances to rip into the prosecution. Blew the whole damn case! Get to your office and comb over everything and find something new to book Thornton on or it’s your job that goes next!” Dinah gritted her teeth, feeling like a child who had just been scolded for something that wasn’t her fault.

This wasn’t her fault. Dinah was positive that all this linked back to the smug bastard sitting in the interrogation room. He was now being questioned by another detective on if he had anything to do with the witness turning up dead, but she was sure he’d slip out of their grip. Again. She’d been chasing this dirtbag for months, during the day as Captain Drake of the SCPD, and as Black Canary during the night. 

Her late nights had caused more than one argument between her and Laurel, her girlfriend either forcing her to stay home or reviving Black Siren to come with her as backup. Dinah had given in on staying home quite a few times as she didn’t want Laurel to be reminded of when she was evil every time they went out into the city. She thought it was all over when she found him and got him to the SCPD all tied up and relatively in one piece for them.

She forgot. She had forgotten that the slimeball had reach outside of prison, that he could order someone to put a hit on anyone he wanted. Forgetting that cost her dearly and gave the defense room to get him out. 

Who the hell was his attorney anyways? Maybe she could go talk to them and see if they were willing to share just  _ how  _ Thornton was about to be turned loose. The only problem was, she wouldn’t really be able to ask if the attorney had been Laurel as the woman was her girlfriend and it would be considered a conflict of interest if she asked. 

She snapped the pencil she had been taking notes with in half, growling at the thought of this murdering gangbanger getting out. “Hey, I’m going to head over to the DA’s office,” Dinah told the rookie cop who she startled with the sudden movement. “So if anyone’s looking for me, don’t bother.”

“Yes ma’am.” He looked nervous when she clapped the clipboard on his chest, ordering him to continue the notes and leave them on her desk when he finished. No one bothered to speak to her as it looked like she was firmly on a warpath that lead straight to the DA’s office. 

Dinah made her way into the office, familiar with the layout thanks to all the times she had come to see her girlfriend or just to talk to someone that she needed a statement from. If she wanted to stop and think about it, she had spent more time here than over at the precinct. It wouldn’t even surprise her as she preferred to do her work with Laurel. She was great for Dinah’s concentration and she had a certain insight into the criminal mind that none of Dinah’s coworkers had. 

Plus, Laurel never let her get too frustrated, distracting her with sparring invites, kisses, or an even more pleasurable distraction that was a win-win for the both of them. Dinah wasn’t afraid to admit that her girlfriend had grown as a person, despite being a sarcastic smartass that got on her nerves occasionally. She might even go as far as saying that she loved Laurel. Not that she was ready to say it out loud but it was true. 

“Hey, I heard about your case,” Laurel said in lieu of a greeting. That would normally irk Dinah but she was trying to prevent herself from losing it at the wrong person if Laurel wasn’t his lawyer. “First off, I had no idea he had been the ‘murdering douchebag’ you’d been on a manhunt for for the past five months. Otherwise, I would have shoved him off onto another attorney.”

Dinah’s blood boiled, Laurel had been his attorney. She should have known that if anyone could rip apart the prosecution’s case and release a guilty man, it’d be Laurel fucking Lance. It wasn’t her fault but everything inside Dinah was screaming to blame her for this, just like her commanding officer was blaming her for it.

“Great. Just great!” Dinah couldn’t help it, she was pissed. “There’s going to be a murderer and a gangbanger back on the streets in less than two hours and there’s nothing I can do.”

Laurel looked concerned, there had to be a deeper reason to why Dinah was reacting so badly to Thornton getting loose. She was more concerned about her girlfriend causing a scene and losing it in the office than she was about her client. “Dinah? What the hell?”

That was not what she needed right now. She didn’t need the usual abrasive Laurel she got who provoked her into sharing feelings, she needed something else. The thing was that she had no idea what she needed right now, but she needed to blow some sort of steam off. “Nothing, don’t worry about it. Just go back to your job.” 

“Hell yes, I’m going to worry about it.” Laurel grabbed Dinah’s arm before she could run out of the office. “Come on, talk to me, I’m your girlfriend, remember?”

“I can’t talk about it with his lawyer! You know, the one who ripped apart a case I helped the prosecution build for a year? The one that nearly drove me insane trying to find the bastard and you destroy it in less than an hour!” Dinah yanked her arm free from Laurel’s grip. It had been easy to do with how shocked her girlfriend looked with her outburst. “I risked my life, in more ways than one, to make sure he couldn’t hurt anybody again.”

“I said I would have passed on the case if I’d known he was the man!” Laurel went to defend herself instead of trying to diffuse the situation. At this rate, that would be the better course of action because it did  _ not _ look like Dinah was going to settle down anytime soon. 

“Would you? Would you really?”

“What are you implying? That I tried to trash your case? I had no idea, Dinah! Plus, there wasn’t enough evidence to book him!”

“There was! Michael Smith ring any bells? He should, because he was the main witness. Is it just a coincidence that he turned up dead the night before he was supposed to testify?” In the back of her mind, she knew she was yelling at the wrong person. All of this wasn’t on Laurel, most of this was on Dinah and even then, it wasn’t all her fault. Everything rested on Thornton and his beliefs that he got away with murdering a mother and her three small children in the Glades. 

She was tired, her superior had been following her around, harassing her and preventing her from properly doing her job because he wanted evidence. She couldn’t even get evidence like she normally would when he was trailing her like  _ she _ killed that small family. Now she was here, fighting with Laurel instead of asking about the trial in a sensible matter.

“It’s not like I killed him. I don’t do that anymore, or did you come here to accuse me of aiding and abetting criminal behaviour?” Laurel threw at Dinah, causing the other woman to freeze in her spot more than she already was. “I thought you knew me better than that! We’ve been dating for almost a year and now you show me that you don’t trust me!”

“Laurel, please don’t start that here.”

“Oh, really? Then where should I start it? Start the conversation about how you’re accusing your girlfriend of helping a criminal?” 

Dinah had had enough. She’d spent enough time on this already and this was not helping her frame of mind at the moment. “I’ve got to go, I’m… I’m sorry.” She fled the room, her anger having deflated the moment Laurel stared at her like she had. Dinah had hoped she would never have that look aimed at her, but she had and it was going to haunt her until she fixed this so Laurel would never look at her like that again.

Laurel looked at Dinah like she had betrayed her and was just like everyone else who used her in her lifetime.

So she’d fix this, she’d get justice for that witness, justice for the family who Thornton murdered in cold blood, and rid the world of one more crazy idiot all at the same time. Captain Drake may not be able to do anything because her hands were tied, but she knew who could get the proper retribution for the victims. The Black Canary could and  _ would. _

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Laurel sighed as she saw Quentin was calling her just as she was getting ready to go over new documents regarding her next case. “What is it?” 

“Listen, I have no idea what the  _ hell  _ happened between you and Drake but you gotta find her. I have never seen her this worked up, not even when she lost Vinnie and trust me, that was a terrible time for her.” Quentin said instead of starting the call his usual way with asking her how she was doing.

“What did she do?” Now Laurel was concerned all over again despite getting into a fight with Dinah earlier in the day. It wasn’t like Dinah to lose her cool at work like that, she always strived to be professional when the situation allowed her to remain as such.

“You and I both know how she likes to keep her cool here, given the training she received with you know. Anyways, a rookie cop ran into her and spilled her files all over the floor. Instead of picking them up, she overreacted and threw him into a damn desk! Broke the desk, got the officer at the hospital with a badly bruised back and a Captain of the SCPD with a vendetta on the loose.”

Laurel started packing up her files, resolving to go over them later after she found Dinah. “She broke a desk?” She really couldn’t believe that, that was  _ so not like _ her girlfriend. 

“Yeah, I mean, I know she’s had a bad day and what not, but that makes no sense to me.”

She paused, pinching the bridge of her nose and groaning. This was partly her fault, Dinah usually came to her when she was getting too stressed, but because of the fight earlier, that hadn’t been an option for her. “It does to me. Listen, I’m going to find her and we’ll talk later about what she has to do to keep her job.”

“Oh don’t worry about that, I’ll do damage control for her job. You do damage control for her safety and I’ll see you two tomorrow night for dinner, okay?” 

Laurel smiled to herself, she was glad that he was her father even if they were from different Earths. If he hadn’t taken her in, she’d still be a maniac on the loose without a steady job and a wonderful girlfriend. A wonderful girlfriend she had to find before she did something that she would regret.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Oh! Hey, Laurel!” Felicity greeted her as she walked into the Arrow Cave. “Dinah’s not here, in fact, I don’t think anyone’s seen her? But I can tell her if she comes by! Well, I imagine she’ll go see you first as you are her girlfriend and I’m nothing. I meant-” Felicity’s ramble was interrupted by the police scanner going off, signalling activity for them.

_ “Dispatch, this is patrol unit 21. We got a 10-32. Shots fired and we suspect it’s a 10-55 as well. We need any available units to meet us at the access road to Iron Heights,”  _ a cop calls over the radio, and Felicity almost turns it off but Laurel stops her, frowning at the machinery.

_ “10-4, 21. I’ll put the call out.” _

_ “Reports of shots fired followed by a loud shriek. Think the Canary paid somebody a visit so tell ‘em to bring earplugs just in case.” _

Laurel didn’t waste any more time, she pulled out her phone to call Dinah instead of waiting around longer to find her. 

“Laurel! Rene just messaged me, he found Dinah.” Felicity sounded worried, which did nothing to ease Laurel’s anxiety that just kept getting worse the longer she didn’t know if Dinah was safe. “She’s bleeding, like really badly. He and Curtis got her changed and they’re taking her to Star City General. Come on, I’ll drive you.” 

She couldn’t even thank Felicity with how stunned she was. Dinah had to be injured really badly if the two knuckleheads were taking her to the hospital instead of bringing her back here. Her worry skyrocketed at the thought of losing Dinah because she was an  _ idiot _ and decided to take on a gang leader without backup. She better live through whatever surgery she was about to go through because Laurel was going to kill her.

Hours of uncertainty and hours of pacing around the ER waiting room had left every last one of Laurel’s nerves frazzled. She originally hadn’t wanted to show how scared she was, but she couldn’t deny it now. Instead of the initial anger that she had felt towards Dinah, now she was downright petrified that she was going to actually lose her. Laurel had never wanted to think about a life without her but she was faced, for the second time today, with the possibility that she might have to think about it.

“I came as soon as I could, sorry, the office held me up and I told them that Dinah got hurt in the crossfire between Thornton and the Canary.” Quentin made his presence known and was woefully unprepared to have Laurel in his arms and sobbing. He held her close, knowing this was something she needed and pleased that she trusted him enough to break down. “She’ll be okay, I promise you.”

“How can you know that? No one’s said anything and I don’t even know how bad she was hurt in the first place! Idiot 1 and Idiot 2 are refusing to tell me anything, like they think I don’t deserve to know about  _ my girlfriend. _ ”

“Hang on a second sweetheart, maybe they don’t want you to know how bad she was hurt so you don’t worry more than you already are.” He had to try and be the voice of reason here, trying to calm down the woman formerly known as Black Siren was no easy feat. She was still human though and a different version of his daughter, that he could handle. “Let’s sit down for a bit, just until we see a doctor or something?” 

To his relief, she went with him, and they sat down in the corner of the waiting room. Now, all they could do was wait and pray that Dinah was okay and that the reason the surgery was taking so long was because of the doctor’s wanting to be careful. Not because there was something grievously wrong with her.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Laurel was in Dinah’s hospital room now, thanking every deity that could possibly exist for bringing Dinah back to her alive. She may not be well but she was alive and had the ability to get well now. That was all that mattered to her in this moment.

She was still going to kill her for scaring her this much in the first place. Laurel wasn’t going to let Dinah think she could pull a stunt like this and everything would be okay. She had lost too many people in her life for her girlfriend to be so casually reckless, she wasn’t about to lose Dinah as well. 

Laurel took a break from her plans of yelling at Dinah and chose instead to sit next to her bedside and hold her hand. Hospitals made her uncomfortable and she normally tried to stay away from them, but it would take the devil himself to drag her away from Dinah. She wasn’t about to move anytime soon, not until she woke up and could talk to her.

Dinah surprised her by being awake only a few hours after her surgery, her gaze hazy and her memory of how she got there fuzzy. “What…?”

“You got shot. Several times, one to the chest, two to the stomach, and one in the thigh. Shattered your femur. Doctor whatshisface said that you're going to be in for a hell of a recovery and you’ll be lucky if you walk again. What were you  _ thinking, you idiotic woman? _ ” Laurel berated her, ready to lay into her further if it weren’t for the sudden tears that made themselves known. She was relieved, Dinah was awake and she would live, but the thought of her not walking again was a little too much for her to handle right now.

“I-I wasn’t. I’m sorry.” Dinah at least had the decency to look ashamed of herself. 

“I could have lost you! Twice! The first time when you came into my office all hotheaded and ready to throw down! The second time just recently when I had to learn from a doctor that you were lucky to be alive because if the gunman was any better at aiming, you’d be dead!” Dinah looked like someone had just kicked her puppy and Laurel almost didn’t care, she was angry, she was hurt. 

She was still terrified.

“I could have lost you. I could have lost you without you knowing I love you,” Laurel whispered, her voice hoarse and tears coming down her cheeks. “Where would I be then? I wouldn’t have you in my life anymore and that just won’t do for me. So you better plan on sticking around Dinah Drake or I’m gonna kick your ass personally.”

Dinah had a bright smile on her face despite just being threatened. She didn’t care what else happened now, Laurel had just said the words that she’d been dying to hear. Words she had almost died before she got to hear them. “I love you too,” she told Laurel.

“Then you better plan on sticking around. You have to show me how much you do when you get out.” Laurel felt happy. Today had been a long day, an extremely bad day as well with all the fighting and tenseness that had happened between them. It wasn’t all bad in the end, they were together and in love, there were worse ways to end a horrible day. 

Worse ways indeed.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Please let me know what you thought on or come yell at me on tumblr @ superstitious19!  
> I'm accepting Dinahsiren prompts there as well! :D


End file.
